A poet, a linguist and a marketing guru join forces to come up with the name of an unborn child. The start of a bad joke? The plotline for the next episode of Black Mirror? Neither – rather, it’s one of the jobs a “mummy concierge” to the super-rich can be asked to do.
Baby-proofing a yacht to ensure the plugs fit a breast pump, finding the best potty-training expert in town and reminding prospective mums to pack their facial mist in their overnight bag are just some of the other tasks Tiffany Norris has put in her diary of late.
Essentially an assistant to very wealthy women before and after they give birth, Norris shines a light on the new extremes taken by parents who are willing to pay her fees, which start at £275 an hour.
Everything from sourcing a bespoke £3,000 nightdress to wear while giving birth, to packing an overnight bag for the suite in a private hospital, to surrounding their bed with pictures from home, has been asked of the mother of four, who lives in the Cotswolds.
“Lots of clients are high-powered career women who need guidance. They have fully staffed households and the ‘mummy concierge’ is just like another member of staff,” says Norris.
The huge bills are at the extreme end of a lucrative industry. But figures from market research company Kantar puts the babywear clothing market alone at more than £860m over the year to May, and almost £300m for travel items, such as car seats and pushchairs.
At the same time, there has been a shift towards women wanting to give birth in private hospitals. The Portland hospital in London, the only privately owned maternity hospital in the UK, says it had seen an increase in expectant mothers choosing it. Here bills start at £7,495 for a consultant-led vaginal delivery.
Self-employed midwives, who work outside the NHS, also report a surge in business.
In the US, the trend of baby planners – similar in some aspects to a wedding planner – has been growing. Companies such as American Express and Fifth Third Bank have provided staff with similar types of services.
Unsurprisingly, some wealthy couples have taken the idea the extra mile. Norris, formerly a journalist who ran a company to help people map out unique ways to propose, set up her business after becoming overwhelmed before her first child was born in 2017.
“I was pregnant with my little boy and had a meltdown in John Lewis thinking ‘How do I know what the right kit to buy is?’. It sparked the thought – you have people planning weddings, but no one helps you plan having a baby.”
Since then, she claims to have worked with high-profile women, not only helping with impending arrivals, but giving advice afterwards, as well as being a shoulder to cry on.
“I do the first year,” she says. “They may need advice on how to get a child into a private school in London, or help to find a potty-training expert.
“I would advise on how many Babygros and vests to pack, and a hospital bag for your partner, as well as little things, like making sure to take a phone charger with a very long lead. I have had someone who wanted a bespoke nightdress made to give birth in, costing £3,000.”
Previous jobs she has taken on for clients include decorating private hospital suites with framed pictures, flowers, and bedsheets from women’s homes, as well as organising post-birth photoshoots, and spending thousands on children’s wardrobes – just for their holidays.
“A lot of my clients have holiday homes, or private yachts. I was once flown to Dubai to help babyproof a yacht, checking the plug sockets can manage a UK plug to ensure a breast pump worked. Also making sure the stair gates were stable enough for a bouncy ocean,” she says.
Parents get in touch through word of mouth, although she declines to say how many people have engaged her services at the moment.
“My everyday clientele are London-based in Chelsea, Kensington, or elsewhere in the UK, such as the Cotswolds. I also have lots of Italian clients and Americans, people who have moved over here for work, and have holiday homes.”
An initial one-hour consultation on the phone is £275 and then the price after that varies depending on what she is asked to do.
“This is where I get to know my clients and understand what is worrying them, or what they need guidance on. This can be anything from choosing which consultant to help deliver your baby privately, to making sure you have the best baby kit out there.
“Once we have worked out what each client needs then we put together a ‘maternity map’ which outlines all the next steps and what I can help them with,” Norris says.
She will not give a figure on the cost of the service overall, but says it “depends on what people want and how much time it takes”.
She dismisses the idea that the huge amounts spent are a waste of money, saying that wealthy people simply want the best for their child.
Norris is often asked about names. “I had one adamant client who wanted a unique name. We set up a thinktank with a linguist, a marketing expert, a branding expert and a poet and sat around brainstorming. “The couple were American and had high expectations of what they wanted their child to be. It was like branding your baby, they wanted to make sure their child had a head start in life.”
In the end, they came up with a shortlist of 17 and narrowed down from there. “The whole process took around two months,” she says.
While there are no middle-range priced pregnancy planners, services to help women through pregnancy and the postnatal period are growing.
The Baby Show – held in London with 30,000 people attending – features experts to help with everything from preparing for birth to weaning.
Websites such as My Expert Midwife, set up by medical professionals, offers downloadable booklets on a range of issues, including preparing for a caesarean, for £5.95. It also has guide on what to pack in your hospital bag for the birth.